


(starting over)

by mysookai



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Best Friends Choi Soobin & Huening Kai, Fantasy, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Mystery, Slow Burn, Teen Wolf AU, because why not, but in the end it's just stupid teenangers being in love, i tried to make it cool, with a bit humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysookai/pseuds/mysookai
Summary: Soobin is absolutely floating, back to the locker room to get a shower and get changed, on his bike to work, and then at the animal clinic. But the floating turns into sinking… because, well, here's the list:1) Soobin's never thought about liking guys before, and now he thinks he does, because he does like Kai, and Kai is definitely a guy, but he'sreallypretty and Soobin likeslikeshim. That's sort of a big realization to have.2) It'sKai, his ride-or-die, his best friend since childhood, and also Soobin's first, well, real kiss. And they didn't really define what they were when the left school. Soobin doesn't want to mess this up.3) The problem with the darkness haunting Kai is still a problem and it's driving him crazy.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Huening Kai
Comments: 18
Kudos: 105





	(starting over)

Kai winces down another gulp of soju. "We should've just taken each other," he whines cutely, talking about the damned prom and Soobin has to restrain himself from pinching his adorable face.

Neither Soobin nor Kai have a date. While disappointing, this wasn't exactly a surprise. They had started their sophomore year of high school with big hopes, believing it would the turnaround year for them. They were supposed to make first-line in baseball, become extremely popular, and get girlfriends or in Kai’s case, boyfriends. The latter still had his eye on Yeonjun though, the hot senior, but even with all his grand plans, Soobin still thought Kai needed a more realistic prospect.

Kai waves a hand in the air above him. "Yeonjun's is the only men I trust in this school. Well also you, but, you’re like my _bestest_ friend."

Soobin steals the bottle of soju out of the loose crook of Kai' arm. He takes a smaller drink than Kai. One of them has to have enough wits about them to navigate out of the preserve. "I don't think that's what makes him popular," Soobin says. "I think it's the great at baseball thing."

Soobin had entertained a crush on the new girl, but she had quickly been folded into the popular crowd and thus away from him. He never got up the nerve to talk to her. He had even had the perfect opportunity her first day when she sat in front of him in homeroom. But what was he supposed to do to break the ice—offer her a pen?

Kai mumbles something incoherent, laughs at himself, then flings an arm out, beckoning for the liquor to be passed back.

"And going stag together just would have been lame," Soobin adds. He digs the heels of his hands into his eyes and doesn't see the way Kai goes still in a way that is unnatural to him. The boy is always jerking in some direction and always winding words around things. Silence and stillness don't become him.

Kai inhales his next sip and he sits up, coughing. Soobin thumps his back.

"Thanks," Kai says once his breathing has returned to normal. He wipes the back of his hand over his mouth then checks his watch. "God. Prom's only half over. I don't want to go home early on prom night."

"Because this is so much cooler?" Soobin says.

"This is an ex – exclusive party for two," Kai declares jabbing a finger upward in emphasis. His voice fills their clearing and echoes between the trees.

When Soobin's done laughing – because even just tipsy, alcohol makes everything funnier – he hears it. The way Kai's head tilts, Soobin knows he does too. A growl. Quiet, but audible over the crinkle of the leaves caught in the breeze and the crackle of their small campfire.

Soobin sees Kai's Adam's Apple bob in a nervous swallow. His pretty eyes slide over to Soobin. "Didn't they kill the mountain lion?" Kai whispers.

Soobin had been standing with his mom on the front step of the school on parent-teacher conference night when he heard the gun go off, loud and sharp.

He nods, but his eyes dart warily around the darkness outside their fire.

Between the trunks of two mangled trees Soobin sees two glowing pinpricks of red. Eyes.

He grabs Kai' sleeve. He gasps: "Run–"

Neither of them get far.

* * *

Soon after, Kai clutches a giant cotton pad to the back of his neck and says: "That wasn't a mountain lion."

"I know," Soobin groans, drowning the tooth marks on his side in burning antiseptic. "I think it was a wolf."

Kai sputters. "T-There haven't been wolves in Seoul for, like, 60 years."

"Yeah, well," Soobin says, sober and scared. "Tell the wolf that."

* * *

For a long time, the wound stays open, the skin refusing to knit shut. A week passes, then another, and the teeth marks in his skin still look like they were made yesterday. Every day Soobin is tempted more and more into going to his mom for help, despite the pact Kai and he had made to never mention this misadventure to their parents ever. Ever. But in the third week, when Soobin sneaked into the bathroom to change his bandage before school, he pulls back the gauze to find the bite mark gone. Soobin must have zoned out in shock for a minute or ten, because next thing he knows his mom is banging on the door, shouting, "You're going to be late for school if you don't get your ass moving."

It's something Soobin's heard from her a hundred times before in a hundred variations, but today it strikes him sudden and painful and weird. It's an extra dose of weariness, and Soobin wonders if his mom got enough sleep last night, if she's frustrated over piling pills, or if Dad called recently and said something shitty.

"Coming," he calls back, voice choked-up. He rolls up the now useless bandages and stuffs them into the bottom of the trash bin.

* * *

The hallway is unbearable. It's muggy and sticky and there are too many people. Is it always this crowded in the mornings before first period?

Soobin is so distracted by tiredness, anger, sadness, happiness, and, Christ, a bit of horniness maybe, that he walks past his locker twice. He feels scrambled and detached, and when he finally gets to his locker he leans his forehead against the cold metal, like it's dry land and he's been lost at sea. He senses Kai behind him almost immediately. He's like warmth in Soobin's chest. A mix of humor and camaraderie and other unidentifiable things that made his gut twist. He turns, and, yeah, there's Kai heading his way down the hall.

Soobin rushes over to him. "Look," he says, and yanks up the side of his t-shirt to display his now unmarred skin.

Kai's eyes linger and he bites his plump bottom lip. He pulls down at the back collar, showing his own lack of injury.

"What the hell?"

"I don't know," Kai says. "And I've tried to know. I've looked into it. We're medical miracles…"

Soobin puts his fingers to the back of Kai's neck where he remembers the claw marks being, running vertical up the back of Kai' neck. Scratch is the word Soobin has used in his head to describe Kai's injury, making it a matching set to his own. Bite and scratch. But scratch hadn't been entirely accurate. Kai' true injury had been a place where claws had been stabbed in and retracted with little other injury.

It all seemed too precise for animal like a wolf or mountain lion or whatever. This creature had stalked them, pursued them, bitten Soobin, "scratched" Kai, and then disappeared. They were lucky.

Soobin blinks when Kai shivers under his fingers. He draws back, concerned.

"Sorry," he says. "Does it hurt?"

Kai gives him a timid smile. "Not really. Not that."

"What?"

Sighing, Kai interlaces their arms together. "It's nothing. Come on. Test time."

* * *

Test days are always nerve-wracking for Soobin, even though this time he prepared pretty well. Yet as more of the class filters in, his anxiety rankers up and up. Maybe he's just catching everyone else's nervousness?

Not-so-new boy (he wonders why there’s a lot of new students all of sudden) Choi Beomgyu, takes the desk next to Soobin's. He knows his name now. Everyone knows his name now – or: his aunt, Choi Tina, arsonist and serial killer. It had been all over the news, and it had been a big deal for Kai's dad, closing all those open cases. Soobin's been curious about the timing, as well. Choi Tina died on prom night, the same night Kai and Soobin were chased by _something_ not far from the damned house.

Kai had relayed the gritty details to Soobin before they even made it to press. "Her throat was slashed out," Kai had said, voice quiet, not to get caught by his father giving out information he shouldn't even know. "By claws." There had been a beat of silence, their own wounds too fresh, and them both thinking the same thing. Was whatever killed this woman (then still unidentified) the same thing they had survived?

Soobin's test anxiety – a shaking knee, drumming fingers, and pen tapping – goes taut. Not calm taut, but rung tight. Stretched, rigid, scared, ready to be put upon…

He looks over as Choi Beomgyu grips his pen in a gesture that is anything but casual.

Soobin leans a little out of his seat. "Hey," he whispers to Beomgyu. "You okay?"

He tilts his head but doesn't quite look at him. "What?"

"Uh… are you okay?"

His jaw sets. "Is this a joke?"

"…No."

"My first day back after… after the funeral" His voice is like wind at the beach. "And this is the day you talk to me for the first time to ask me if I'm alright?"

He's mad; it's obvious – but it's like this morning, when he _perceived_ more from his mom than he usually would. Beomgyu's projecting out anger, but he's also projecting it inward, _and how could Soobin know that?_ He doesn't know him.

Soobin sits back in his own daze of confusion and says no more. Beomgyu turns his head, facing away.

Kai pokes Soobin in the back with his pencil. "What was that about?"

"I don't know," Soobin replies. Even though he knows most of the answers on the test that the teacher passes out two minutes later, he doesn't feel at ease for the rest of the period.

* * *

"I can't believe he put us on the bench during a scrimmage. It's," Kai cups his hands around his mouth and yells Coach Jeon's general direction, "NOT EVEN A REAL GAME."

Soobins rolls his baseball stick between his palms. "I guess he wants the people who actually play to get practice."

Kai gives Soobin a little glare, like he doesn't appreciate Soobin's commentary at all but instead of making him look scary he just look like an angry kitten. He quickly goes back to yelling at the people on the field, but Soobin's distracted. He feels hot pinpricks climbing up the back of his neck and shifts in his seat to get more comfortable. It doesn't help.

It's definitely coming from the field, whatever it is. He looks around to search but there's shouting out on the field. Soobin turns back around to see most of the team cluttered around one goal, number 37 pumping his hands into the air. Yeonjun had scored. The pinpricking sensation intensifies as Kai yells happily.

The cogs come together in Soobin's brain. Kai's all hot and bothered for Yeonjun scoring. This a horrifying realization.

Kai must've noticed Soobin looking up the bleachers, for he does the same, his demeanor changing when he sees Yeonjun’s sweat soaked shirt. "Damn, that's a nice view."

The same wave of feeling gets even more scorching. Soobin stands, suddenly, to get away from it.

Kai squints up at him. "You okay, Binnie?"

"I need," Soobin starts. He just needs to get away. "Bathroom."

"You need bathroom?" Kai repeats back, but Soobin's already power-walking away.

Soobin can't think of anywhere else to go, so he goes where he said, to the bathroom in the boy's locker room. At the sink, he splashes cold water on his face. He's alone, and for the first time all day Soobin feels like himself. He worries, though— what's going on with him?

* * *

The day another transferee moves in, Kai invites Soobin over for a video game marathon. It's a Friday night and "A celebration for finally being healed," Kai describes it. Soobin spies a little wince in Kai's grin as he says this. Neither of them feel this whole debacle settled right, but Soobin's not sure how to conjure up the right words to ask if Kai is going through the same thing Soobin is. How can he explain the sensation that everyone is just _more_?

They play video games until their stomachs growl. Kai orders in pizza with some cash his dad left for him. They eat their fill, then play more video games until they give up due to eye strain. Kai puts in a movie, which doesn't help with the eye strain thing, but it's easier not to pay attention to. Sitting next to Kai on the couch, eyes drooping, Soobin is comfortable and sleepy. Kai is warm and pliant where their shoulders are pressed together and he wants to hold him closer.

It's not like those nights this week that Soobin has spent sequestered in his room, detoxing from the day of absorbing too much of other people and sorting himself out. With Kai, with his best friend who Soobin understands more than anyone, a happy, tired buzz is doubled and reflected back at him. He sinks into the warmth, eyes slipping shut, deciding not to fight it anymore.

Soobin awakes feeling cold, and sits up, squinting. Oh, right, Huening household. They fell asleep on the couch. _They_ fell asleep on the couch.

Something's off. Soobin woke up for a reason. He looks down at Kai, who is sprawl-curled in a way that Soobin can't imagine being comfortable, head propped up on the arm of sofa. Otherwise, Kai looks adorable clutching into his giant rabbit plushie, wrapped up in undisturbed sleep.

But _wrong, wrong, wrong_ keeps pounding inside Soobin's skull. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he inspects every corner of the room from his seat, expecting to see some intruder with a knife. There are none to be found. It's just them.

He touches Kai's arm, and he's struck with realization. It's him, it's Kai who has sucked away the safety and familiarity of this place and replaced it with this pulse-pushing and tepid-cold something else.

"Kai?" Soobin says, barely audible. No reaction. "Ningning," he says again, voice higher. He grips Kai's arm, gives him a little shake. The boy turns his head, makes a little noise, and Soobin wants to cry.

He places both hands on Kai's shoulders and shakes again. "Wake up," he demands.

Kai shifts again, this time blinking his brown eyes open. "Binnie?" he whines softly, and the _wrongness_ that had been infecting Soobin disappears in that space of a blink.

Soobin sits back on the couch, breathing hard.

Groggily, Kai sits up. "Are… are you okay?"

Soobin puts a hand over his eyes, reeling. That was intense. The most intense of anything he's experienced since he started experiencing whatever the hell this is.

"Soobin?" Kai leans in closer. When Soobin drops his hand it's hard to look at him.

"Are you okay?" Soobin asks, hearing his voice breaking and not caring one bit.

"Yes?" Kai says, confused. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You weren't having a nightmare?" Soobin asks. It's the only logical leap he can make (not that anything about this night is logical anymore).

Kai shakes his head. "Not that I remember. Was I acting like I was?"

"It's complicated," Soobin answers because 'you felt like you were terrified' is not an appropriate response.

Kai stares at Soobin for a long moment, tilting his head like he's solving a puzzle. "Were you?"

Yes, is the answer. Soobin was having a nightmare, except too scary and too real and when he was too conscious.

Maybe that's it. Maybe Soobin _was_ dreaming. Maybe that's what woke him up and filled him with such a sense of dread. And he just projected it on Kai. That makes sense…

It doesn't explain everything else Soobin's experienced this week, but he can selectively ignore that when Kai reaches and grabs his wrist to get his attention. It's a different kind of touch then they usually share. Not high fives or trying to elbow the other into losing concentration during video games or accidentally falling asleep on each other. The pad of Kai' thumb drifts over Soobin's pulse-point. His hold is loose and his fingertips cold, but not like the cold from earlier, pressing and petrifying. It's human, a reminder of where Soobin's body ends and Kai' begins. Because Soobin can't think of another explanation, he leans into his touch longer than he would’ve wanted. Let be accepted that this is his nightmare.

Kai offers to drive him home, but Soobin insists he's not a nine-year-old scared at his first slumber party and hey it’s his job to drive anyone’s ass home, especially his. They relocate upstairs, where Soobin has a sleeping bag thrown out on the floor. Kai is so tired that just a minute after he collapses onto his bed does Soobin hear his tiny snores start. He, however, is not so lucky, but it's not lying on the floor that's keeping him awake.

As he stares at the ceiling, Soobin can't help but swim in unease that something else happened tonight other than the terror. He's just can't figure out what.

* * *

Animals are easier to be around. They're straightforward: happy, scared, angry. They wear their feelings on their surface, without nuance and uncomplicated.

Seokjin's treating a dog from a couple who are shocked that she bit one of them last week. "I'm not an animal psychologist, but they trust me," he explains to Soobin as he hangs his backpack up on a wall hook.

The dog snarls at Soobin from where she is leashed.

"She's hurting," Soobin says from his corner of the room. Seokjin prefers he kept back from the more temperamental pets.

"Pain can cause a dog to lash out," the doctor says. "I haven't been able to find anything… though she's barely letting me close." He pauses, almost waiting for Soobin to say more. He's a teacher like that. Not your typical boss.

"Her paw," Soobin says. He gets it because the dog isn't just hurt, but afraid. She can't get away as fast if something goes wrong.

"She is favoring her right side," Seokjin observes.

Soobin goes to do some of his chores around the building. Seokjin finds him fifteen minutes later, a centimeter long thorn in a petri dish.

"Good intuition, Soobin… You'd make a good vet, if you're considering it."

Soobin grins. He's an average student, an abominable baseball player, and lacking in his love life, but here, in the animal clinic, he's successful. As things are going, Soobin would prefer to spend most of his time around animals than around people anyway.

* * *

Kai sags down on the seat next to Soobin. The rocking of the bus must be making him drowsy, and his weight presses against Soobin.

Fifteen minutes into Kai's nap, thirty minutes into the bus ride to the away game, it's no longer stuffy in the vehicle stuffed with teenage boys. At least not to Soobin. He is overcome with a chill like a foggy night rolling in.

No. Not again. It was supposed to be a fluke. But the chill turns stronger, despite Soobin's denial, prickling like shards of ice. He swallows hard. His mouth is dry. Kai's head flops into Soobin's shoulder. His sleeping face is adorable and Soobin resists the urge to touch it. The feeling becomes worse. Soobin shivers under the intensifying pressure of the unreal cold. He's not sure what to do.

The bus goes over a pothole and Kai jerks awake. He raises his head and shakes his fluffy hair like a newborn puppy. Kai doesn't apologize for getting in his space and Soobin honestly doesn't mind. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last.

Soobin doesn't want it to be the last.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Kai pouts, glancing over at him.

"Just…" There's no plausible explanation.

"Soobin," Kai says, followed by a huff like he’s trying to goad him into saying something more.

If Soobin knew what Kai wants him to say, he would say it in a second. Every single one of Kai's smiles is a gift, especially in the aftermath of the terror. To know he's is alright...

Soobin swallows the buildup of saliva in his mouth and feels nauseous. "It's nothing."

Kai replies with a short, bitter "Sure" and turns to look out the window.

* * *

  
Soobin feels his mom before he hears her, a permeating, deep-seated, motherly worry, then her voice outside his bedroom door.

"I'll ask him…" are the only words Soobin makes out before she knocks.

He sits up in bed. "Yeah?"

Mom opens the door and steps in. She's changed into her scrubs top but still in pajama pants and slippers. A phone is in hand.

"Did Kai sneak in here last night?" she asks instead of a 'good morning.'

"No," Soobin says. His pulse picks up like it’s baseball practice and not like he was just asleep five minutes ago.

"And he wasn't planning to sneak off somewhere late last night or this morning?"

"Not that he told me."

His mother raises the phone back to her ear. "No," she says into the mouthpiece.

"What's going on?" Soobin asks. His mother holds up a finger for him to wait as she finishes on the phone. "…I'll let you know straight away. And let me know too. Okay." He thumbs the end button the phone, and her arm drops like it's holding a stone.

"Mom?"

"Kai wasn't at home this morning."

Soobin is on his feet but he doesn't remember moving. He scrambles through the piled junk of his desk, finds his cell phone among it. No messages. No missed calls.

"I have to look for him," Soobin says, though he has no clue where to start.

" _You_ have to go to school," Mom says, the surest she's sounded this morning.

"Kai is missing!" Soobin protests.

"Exactly," His mother says. She's at his side, and even though she's smaller than him, at her touch on his shoulders, he turns to face her. "I don't need you running off to god knows where, too. If you know anything…"

"I don't," Soobin says, too sharp. He rubs at his eyes. He knows nothing helpful anyway.

"You need to go to school," His mom says, "And if Kai shows up there, you need to let me and the Sheriff know right away. If he contacts you at all..."

"Let you know," Soobin mumbles in agreement.

His mother forces a grin.

"He's probably fine," she says, but Soobin knows she doesn't believe this.

He nods, though he believes it even less.

* * *

Soobin leaves four messages (plus 8 other missed calls) and thirteen texts on Kai's phone over the course of the school day. None was answered. The second the bell rings announcing the end of last period, Soobin is on his phone, calling his mom.

"Any news?" he asks when she picks up.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Her voice is scratchy.

Soobin swears. His mother admonishes him for his language, but it's half-hearted at best.

"He'll turn up. I'm sure he'll turn up... See you at home for dinner?" It's like she's afraid he'll disappear next. It's not too crazy. The animal attacks had stopped but new series of deaths had started haunting the town.

"Yeah," Soobin says. "When do you get off?"

"Six. I have the car."

"I know."

"You're going to look for him, aren't you?"

Soobin flexes his free hand. "If I don't, I feel like... like I'll come out of my skin. You know that Kai’s is my…" He trails of, unsure what to say. “He means so much to me, mom. You know that.”

"Soobin."

"I'll be safe. I promise. I'm just going to look for him – I don't know where I'm going to look for him. I just have to try."

His mother's breathing goes static-y through the phone reception and Soobin knows she's accepting this. "If you think Kai is anywhere dangerous, call the sheriff's department. Call his dad."

"I will."

They repeat their promises to both be home for dinner, say their goodbyes, and then, just as Soobin's about to hang up, His mother says, "I hope you find him."

"Me too."

* * *

Soobin makes the rounds to any of Kai's and his current or past haunts, to any place that held some amount of significance or memory to them. The old arcade on Fifth that was their favorite hang out in sixth grade, the liquor store that always accepted fake ids, the diner Sheriff liked to take them to, even the animal clinic in case Kai wants Soobin to find him but no one else (and Kai knows where the spare key was hidden after the wolf-attack debacle). Soobin even swings by his own house and Kai's just in case he has showed up there during the day.

Soobin only has one woefully out-of-date picture of Kai's in his phone from the dawn of freshman year, when they were all big hopes and even bigger dorks. It's the picture that accompanies Kai's contact info. Most of his pictures are stored safely inside his old camera, hidden from prying eyes. When Kai is found (when, when, when, never if) Soobin will have to update it. The picture is close enough for anyone to recognize Kai though, if they had seen him. A goofy kid with a bowl cut, often loud, clumsy, hard to miss. Soobin wants to explain that Kai' features are sharper now, prettier, then when the photo was taken. He wants to explain that Kai has graduated from goofiness to a black belt in sweet-talks and sarcasm. Wants to impress the importance that this isn't just another runaway kid, that Kai is more than 'Have you seen this guy?' because he is Soobin's _everything._

All that searching and all Soobin gets is 'no, sorry,' disinterest, and mild worry from strangers who go back to their own concerns seconds later.

Soobin maybe has time to check one more place before he has to head home for dinner. He's fairly sure his mom won't let him out to search afterward. The problem is that Soobin is out of ideas. He's sure Mom has been keeping a close eye on who's being admitted to the hospital and Sheriff Huening probably has the whole force keeping an eye out for Kai if not actively searching. What help can Soobin be compared to that, unless because he knows Kai as well as himself.

Soobin doesn't have any more ideas, until he thinks – the preserve, where they had survived the attack. Soobin hops on his bike and starts peddling with all his might. The preserve is too big to search all by himself, so he decides to check their illicit drinking spot and work from there.

Soobin turns up a path into the Seongdong-gu Preserve, goes about a quarter-mile in, then is forced to lean his bike against a tree. He continues on foot through the shrubbery and over tree roots to get to the clearing off the trail where the two of them had gathered more than once for campfires and alcohol consumption.

Even before he reaches it, Soobin can see that no one is there. He continues anyway, hoping that maybe just a new angle or a closer look will reveal something. Nada. Soobin walks into the clearing, then through it, then past it. He makes a big loop around it, eyes peeled for a sign. He cups his hands around his mouth and calls Kai's name several times, facing different directions, each time waiting for his echoes and the birds disturbed by his yelling to quiet down, waiting to hear Kai calling back.

Kai doesn't call back.

Soobin returns to the clearing. He has time yet and nowhere else to look. He moves to take a seat on out of the rocks, hits something like a stone with his toe, and it makes a small arch in the dirt. It's not a stone. It's too proportional and light. It's a phone.

Soobin scrambles as he picks it up. It's the same make as Kai' phone. He plays with the power button and the screen sunrises to life. Soobin's heart triples its beats. It's Kai's phone.

"Kai! Huening Kai!" Soobin screams out again.

A crow squawks loud overhead and then Soobin hears it, a quiet whimper, hopeful and scared. _Help. Soobin…_

There is no way that it was actually said. And no way Soobin can decipher where this sound without source is coming from. It doesn't matter. Soobin's not going to question it. He just turns in a direction and goes, running faster than he ever managed in baseball practice. Kai's phone is gripped tight in his fist, and Soobin just runs.

He comes upon the Kang house. Soobin stops, heaving breaths, seeking out his inhaler from his back pocket and taking a huff. All the details Soobin knows of this place had come from Kai relaying them, an insider on his dad solving the years-old arson case just a few weeks ago.

Is this the type of dangerous place his mom meant when she cautioned him? It _was_ a crime scene, technically, though an inactive one now. Soobin walks the remaining distance to the house in a daze. He has to try, even if this place does give him a serious case of the dread. More than that, the house fills him with a sense of _wrong._ There is something unsettling about this place, Soobin decides, as he takes the creaking front steps with care, like into a graveyard on Halloween night.

In the entrance hall, Soobin shivers. He doesn't want to think too hard about the people who died here, the people who made up the ash. He doesn't want to think about Choi Tina's body found with her throat ripped out. Her blood probably still stains the wood floor somewhere Soobin doesn't want to see.

Taking his chances, Soobin turns to the right into a wide open space that might have been a living room. A breath catches in his throat.

"Ningning."

His best friend is curled on the floor on his side, shoeless, still in his pajamas, which are now dusted with soot. Soobin collapses to his knees beside him, not remembering the steps in between.

Kai awakens instantly this time when Soobin puts his hands on him and calls his name. Kai wakes, confused and upset until Soobin can calm him down and explain what he can. Kai digs the heels of his hands into his eyes.

"I must have been sleepwalking. I did that when I was little."

"Ever this far?" Soobin asks, his voice shaky.

Kai shakes his head. "Only around the house."

"Do you –" Soobin starts, deciding to look up everything about sleepwalking later. Right now all he can focus on is Kai. He wants to hug him, crushes him between his arms, maybe even kiss him. He’s just glad that he’s safe. "Remember anything?"

Kai just shakes his head. He looks as disturbed as Soobin feels.

* * *

Kai calls his dad with his reclaimed phone. ("Must have taken it when I started sleepwalking on instinct" Kai says when Soobin returns it to him.) He rubs at the back of his head as he presses the phone to his ear, out on what was once the front lawn of the Kang house.

The entire moment is rather intimate, and when Soobin realizes he can hear Sheriff Huening over the speakers, he steps away to create some amount of privacy. When the call is done, Kai's eyes are red-rimmed.

"Is he mad?" Soobin asks softly.

"No, not after I explained…," Kai purses his lips for a second. "He coming to pick us up."

As they walk, Soobin texts his mom the good news. Kai steps on a stick and winces when it snaps under his bare foot.

"How did I make it out here without shoes?" he says.

"Take mine," Soobin says, starting to tug off his sneakers.

"You sure?" Kai asks as Soobin hands the left one over.

"I still got socks."

They wait for the sheriff on a fallen tree at the edge of the preserve just off the entrance road. Sheriff's car approaches over the speed limit and slows with a brake-screeching halt. He leaves the door open as he rushes out to get to his son, pulling him into a bone-crushing hug.

After letting go of his son, Sherriff Huening turns to Soobin. He grips him by the shoulder.

"Thank you," he says, voice choked with emotion. Soobin doesn't trust himself to answer, and just nods.

* * *

The four of them – His mother, Soobin, Sheriff Huening, and Kai – share dinner that night. Everyone is giggly-happy, especially His mother and Kai's dad, over his son being found. It feels like champagne bubbles in Soobin's head, but he just can't get into it. He knows something more is wrong. What had Kai said once, an adage he had picked up from his father? Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. Three times has Soobin now sensed something dark coming from Kai in his sleep. And the third time had trumped them all.

When his mother is getting ready to leave, Soobin asks if he can stay. That plea he heard, of Kai calling desperately, subconsciously, for _help_ is haunting him.

His mom and the sheriff share one of those silent, parental conversations had with only the eyes. The way they grin when they're done, it's clear they both think this gesture is cute.

"Sure," His mother says, kissing Soobin on the temple before she leaves.

"I'm fine, y'know," Kai pouts when they retreat up to his bedroom.

"You really scared us," Soobin says, using _us_ instead of _me_ because he doesn’t want Kai to know how much his disappearance has scared him. "I don't think you know how much you scared us."

"I know," Kai says somberly, then peps back up too fast to be genuine. He grasps Soobin by either shoulder, mumbles shyly: "But I'm fine now, Binnie."

"You're lying," Soobin says as easily and as sure as Kai rambles off trivia.

Kai blinks, and the peppiness vanishes. "It wasn't sleepwalking," hesays.

"What?"

"The more I think about it, it couldn't be. Sleepwalking doesn't last for hours. It just _doesn't_." His hands flail in the air. "I couldn't have walked from here to the middle of the preserve in that time… and then slept all day on top of it? It doesn't make sense."

Soobin takes a careful breath. "Then what do you think it was?"

"I don't know. A fugue state, maybe? I mean it fits. The amnesia –"

"So you don't remember anything?" Soobin asks quickly.

"No," Kai snaps. He's as frustrated with his lack of memory as Soobin is scared by it. Kai sits on the edge of his bed, body bunted up with contained emotion. They are practically exploding from Kai, like jabs of blinding light, too much for Soobin to discern.

Soobin kneels in front of Kai so he can catch his eyes even as he looks stubbornly downward. "Ningning?" Soobin says softly, putting a hand on Kai's knee, rubbing a thumb across the fabric in a soothing manner. "What's wrong?"

Kai pinches the bridge of his nose with his long, delicate fingers. "I just… I have a bad feeling about this."

Soobin's grips tight to Kai's knee.

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"There's like twelve hours I can't remember. I woke up in a burned out house. Why wouldn't I feel bad about this?"

Soobin deflates because Kai doesn't know how deep the bad feeling goes. He licks his lips as his mouth has gone dry.

"I don't feel good about this either… Because, ever since that," he lowers his voice, "Animal attack, I haven't felt right either." Soobin wants to say more, wants to explain more, but he's not sure how to.

"When did our lives stop being boring-pathetic and turn into this type of pathetic?" Kai asks humorously.

"Hey," Soobin says, "That's me and my best friend you're talking about."

Kai smiles down at him, and what a blessing it is. He then yawns wide, but in tiny unlike he does everything. Loud, wide, known. His disappearing was the inversion of Kai as a person. He rubs his eyes. "God, I'm tired."

"Go to bed," Soobin says, sitting back on his heels. "I'll be right here."

"Yeah," Kai says. He peers doe-eyed at Soobin. "You always are."

* * *

Kai subconscious is screaming at Soobin. Throat-going-raw type screaming. And Soobin can't _do_ anything, least of all sleep. So he sits by Kai side, watching him sleep.

Soobin had hoped, for one night, especially after today, for a reprieve. He was wrong to hope. It's three a.m., and he had been awoken by _this_. It was instantly familiar. He couldn't roll over and pretend.

As always, Kai's face is impassive in deep sleep. Nothing of his agony is betrayed in his body either. Soobin moves from the floor to sit next to Kai' sleeping form on the bed.

Soobin brushes the back of his fingers over Kai's hairline. It's something he remembers his mom doing for him, in his youth, when he sick. Then he moves to his unruly hair. They’re messy, but feels soft against his fingers.

Kai's eyes squint open, first the left then the right. Soobin jerks his hand back.

"Soobinie?" Kai says, voice croaky. He blinks a few times. "You're crying."

Soobin shakes his head, the same time wiping his hand across his cheek. He discovers wetness there.

Kai sits up. "What's wrong?"

"I don't –" Soobin starts. He shakes his head again. "I don't know."

"Hey. Hey, it's okay," Kai says in his gentlest voice. He pulls Soobin into a hug and Soobin's body just goes, leaning his weight into Kai. What a twist, that Soobin is getting the comforting when it’s usually the opposite.

Who knows what Kai's theory – the boy always has a theory – as to what Soobin's tears are for. Everyone knows he’s not one to cry but Soobin is just afraid of losing him again.

"I'm here, Soobinie, I'm here," Kai says. He sits back and presses a hand to the side of Soobin's face. The other holds Soobin's shoulder. "I'm okay." He pinches his lips. "I'll be okay. We'll be okay."

Soobin sighs loudly. "I have something I have to tell you," he says. "But not tonight."

"Okay," Kai says, breath catching in his throat.

They fall asleep together on Kai's bed and stay there for the rest of the night.

The next morning is awkward in a way that isn't normal for them. They change clothes in front of each other in the locker room regularly and had changed into fresh pajamas last night in the same closed bedroom without it being an issue. But this morning, as Kai lends him an outfit for school, they are nothing but elbows and a series of _sorry's_ and _excuse me's._

Soobin catches Kai's arm as he yanks his bedroom door open.

"About last night," he starts not knowing how he's going to finish. Doesn't matter. He would have been struck silent by Kai's amber eyes anyway.

"I get it, Soobin. I know you're not ready, but I get it."

"You do?"

Kai rolls his eyes. "It's kind of obvious."

"It is?"

Kai cocks his head to the side. "After last night…" he says with raised eyebrows, leaving it hanging. "I mean, _come on_."

"Oh." Soobin's willing to admit that he had been a mess last night, but had he really given it away when he didn't even have the words to explain it yet.

Soobin doesn't understand the vibes he's receiving from Kai's right now.

"It's okay if you're not ready," Kai says, "I'll be here when you are."

* * *

Soobin can't puzzle out Kai's words from this morning. He says he _knows_ , but Soobin doesn't know how Kai could also know about the darkness that reeks from him in his sleep? Or if he did know, why didn't he admit it any of the times Soobin had awoken him?

It bothers him all the way to work.

Seokjin says, "I heard you found Kai. You're a hero."

"I wouldn't— wouldn't say hero." Weren't heroes supposed to feel heroic? Not desperate and lost? Soobin fiddles with the receipts he's organizing.

Seokjin leans against the desk. "Mind telling me how you found him?"

Soobin fidgeting stops. No one has asked him that yet. They three main players in the incident – His mother, Sheriff, and Kai – were distracted by other things.

"I got lucky," Soobin says.

"Some luck you have." Seokjin tilts his head. "I'm sure it's quite a story."

Soobin says nothing.

"More intuition?" Seokjin asks, and Soobin jerks his head up. He catches Seokjin's eyes; the man's gaze is intense, searching into Soobin. A rolling tinge of curiosity and suspicion hits him.

"I looked everywhere I could think," Soobin says. "And eventually I found him."

Seokjin doesn't pry anymore about the incident. However, Soobin knows, knows in the way that he _knows_ now, that Seokjin is wise to more than he shows.

* * *

Soobin grabs Kai by the hand. "Remember when I said I needed to talk to you about something?"

"Yeah."

"I need to talk to you about something."

"Here?" Kai asks, glancing around the locker room, crowded after practice and sticky from too many sweaty bodies.

"You're right," Soobin says. "Too crowded." He doesn't let go of Kai's hand as he leads them out into the school, into the vacated halls, and finds a spot under a stairwell to sit. Kai joins him on the tile, facing Soobin, knees pulled up.

"I don't really know where to start…" Soobin says, pushing his wrists into his eyes.

"Start. Start anywhere. Start yesterday. Starting is the heart of starting, right?"

Soobin drops his arms and huffs out a laugh. "What're you even saying?"

"I don't know." Kai' smile is adorable. Soobin's tingly all over.

Soobin shakes his head. His bangs fall across his forehead. This clears none of the tingles, none of the pricking warmth along the inside of his skin, nor his struggle for words.

"I guess it started prom night," Soobin says. "We could've been killed."

Kai nods. "Make sense," he says.

"What makes sense?" Soobin asks.

"The start," Kai says. "There's nothing like being with your best friend and realizing that there is no one you'd rather be with."

"Yeah," Soobin agrees. If couldn't have avoided it all together, he wouldn't want to have faced down that menace with anyone else.

Soobin's memories of the event are scrambled, but what he has is vivid. They could barely manage to keep the ground under their feet as they ran. They didn't split up. Sometime just as they started to flee, Kai grabbed Soobin's hand and held it tight. Soobin gripped back.

He doesn't know who the wolf got first. All Soobin does know is that Kai didn't let go until teeth had met flesh.

"Then there was that night," Soobin says, "Where I was playing video games at your house and I stayed over."

"Of course," Kai says, goading Soobin along.

"Then the other night at your house, after the…" he doesn't say _disappearance_ because he doesn't want it to be the jinx.

"Don't forget the time in the bus," Kai adds, mock counting off his fingers.

"You know?" Soobin asks, shock evident in his tone.

Kai's laughs, sounding a bit high. Sparkling warmth is still infecting Soobin, and he's not sure what it is, but he knows it's Kai's.

"How couldn't I?" Kai says.

"But I asked you!"

"No you didn't."

"About nightmares, the first night. And then after I found you… if you remembered anything."

"What are you even talking about?" Kai asks.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how you stare at me when I'm sleeping," Kai whines. His eyebrows are slanted downward. "That means you either want to kiss me or skin me."

The tingling has dampened down but it's still popping along. Soobin gets it. He's felt variations of it before from his surrounding students. From Kai towards Yeonjun on the field. From Beomgyu to Yeonjun. From almost all of his classmate's everyday towards another: between crushes and broken hearts and boyfriends and girlfriends.

Kai likes Soobin. Like, _like_ likes him. And it's stronger than he had every experienced before, perhaps why it was so confusing for Soobin. Or perhaps Soobin couldn't think something like that would be directed at him, _from Kai…_ but. It's not an unpleasant realization.

"Well…" Soobin starts. "I don't want to skin you." He feels struck dumb, in every meaning of the word.

Kai is biting his bottom lip, but like carbonation, it's like the emotions have been shaken up and are expanding and spilling over. Soobin's not sure what are his own and what are Kai's.

Kai leans in, and it's just half a slant when Soobin puts a hand on his chubby cheeks and pulling at the skin to stop him.

"Ning, I'm still–"

"Sure," Kai cuts across, relieving Soobin of having to finish. Soobin knows that a Kai with a crush is a Kai with a plan. But Kai doesn't look mischievous or scheming now, just pretty-eyed and insanely beautiful.

Soobin closes the lids of his eyes and barely seen patterns dance across them. He releases a breath. There's too much tangled up in him, gut-wrenching storm waves of confusion and _want_. Soobin wants him, he realizes. Wants to hold him, to have him, to _ruin_ him and that’s a dangerous thought. He won’t go there.

Kai voice slices through. "Binnie." It's gentle. Soobin presses a hand to the tile floor to hold himself up.

A palm goes down on top of his hand, like a test. It's warm and calming and belongs to Kai. This means Soobin's internal torment is his own. If he can get it to settle, what is left for Soobin to find? He breathes slowly like they instruct on his mom's yoga videos. Stop the storm, still the waves, separate what Kai is feeling right now – hope and tinged hurt and his exact brand of want, want, _want_ – and what Soobin is feeling – nervousness and surprise and worry over whatever is afflicting Kai and… This other thing. This tingly thing.

Oh.

He opens his eyes.

"You okay there?" Kai asks, voice sweet, eyes pretty.

Soobin nods, jerky. He clenches Kai’s hand in his and pulls until their lips touch for the second time. His thoughts turn to static.

* * *

Soobin is absolutely floating, back to the locker room to get a shower and get changed, on his bike to work, and then at the animal clinic. But the floating turns into sinking… because, well, here's the list:

1) Soobin's never thought about liking guys before, and now he thinks he does, because he _does_ like Kai, and Kai is definitely a _guy_ , but he's _really_ pretty and Soobin likes _likes_ him. That's sort of a big realization to have.

2) It's _Kai._ his ride-or-die, his best friend since childhood, and also Soobin's first, well, real kiss. And they didn't really define what they were when the left school. Soobin doesn't want t _o mess this up._

3) The _problem_ with the darkness haunting Kai is still a problem and it's driving him crazy.

"Something's distracting you," Seokjin says. His voice like warm tea as he speaks: unassuming, soothing, sophisticated.

Soobin shrugs.

Seokjin rounds the desk, stands opposite Soobin. "I am your boss, but I also like to think that I've been a mentor to you…" He leaves it as an ambiguous question.

Soobin looks up. "You are."

"You can come to me, then, if you want… if you need anything. For advice. If you're having any problems… I assure you, there is nothing too," Seokjin pauses and his next word permeates. "Nothing too _odd_ , that you can't talk to me about it."

Soobin drops his eyes back to his hands. Seokjin steps back, like he's leaving. Soobin's not sure he'll ever have this opening again, or this nerve to say it, so he speaks up.

"There is something."

Seokjin steps back in. He rests his forearms on the counter. "Yes?"

"It's about Kai. And me."

Seokjin nods, his mouth gently set and everything about his features open and un-judgmental. Seokjin is not a man of strong emotions. He's like a river, which is steady in its flow and deeper than it looks.

"Kai has feelings for me. And I… feel back, but it's complicated."

Seokjin blinks.

Internally, Soobin reels back. "That's not the type of thing you meant."

Seokjin says, "It's just not what I expected," without a waiver.

Soobin tilts his head and lets himself focus in on the slightest shift in Seokjin's current. He puts it together with the conversation that just was.

"You want me to tell you something," Soobin states. He lowers his brow, looks at Seokjin as intently as the man is looking at him. "What do you want me to tell you?"

Something pleased passes about Seokjin's features if not so explicit as in a smile.

Seokjin returns Soobin's question with one of his own: "Are you aware there are security cameras in here?" He points to a spot in the corner and Soobin looks up to see it.

"Huh," Soobin says. He hadn't noticed before. What did this have to do with… oh. "Kai and I came in here after hours one night but we were just –"

"Cleaning some nasty wounds, I know," Seokjin says. "What bit you, Soobin?"

"A mountain lion," Soobin says, the town's lie becoming his own.

Seokjin then asks: "What actually bit you?"

The truth was unbelievable, but why did that mean Soobin had to lie about it.

"A wolf with red eyes," Soobin says, expecting this to rebuffed as impossible or another lie. Seokjin's jaw tightens and he nods once.

"And have you felt different, since?" Soobin doesn't say anything right away, but the _yes, so much, I don't know what to do_ , must be clear from the drop of his mouth and the cast of his eyes. Seokjin follows up, "How?"

Soobin then says the words, the best and most insane explanation, "I know what everyone is feeling. Like, right now, you… You're a little worried but mostly intrigued, but underneath all that there is a lot of regret, from the past."

For the first time, in all of his years knowing Dr. Seokjin, Soobin sees the man shocked.

"This isn't what I expected," Seokjin says. He gives him the rest of the week off against Soobin's will. When he returns to the animal clinic the next day after baseball practice to beg Seokjin for an answer, he isn't there, but replaced by Dr. Kim, the retired veterinarian who sometimes fills in.

Soobin texts Kai. _I need to talk to you. It's important._

Kai replies almost immediately. _I'm at home. Come over._

Kai answers the door at his first knock. He jerks his head to motion for Soobin to follow him upstairs. The Sheriff has his glasses on at a table covered in files. There had been another string of odd deaths, presumably murders. First someone crushed under a lift at garage, and the rest came pouring in after. If Soobin hadn't been so worried about Kai, he might have been worried about this. The latter goes deep into his room. Soobin closes the door. He doesn't let go of the handle as he turns. Kai's bare feet shift on the carpet from inward pointing to parallel. He puts a hand to his hip then drops it. Soobin lets the back of his head clunk against the solid door behind him.

"What did you want to talk about?" Kai asks.

Soobin was going to talk about Seokjin and his weird questions about the wolf and about everything afterwards if he could manage it. But now Soobin's mouth is incredibly dry. He can feel his face heating up at the image of Kai’s tousled hair and skin-tight pajamas.

"What?" Kai demands, though kind of squeaky.

Soobin says the first thing that comes to his mind, and it's completely honest: "You make me nervous."

Kai pouts. "I make you nervous?" He tries to lean on his computer chair, but his computer chair has wheels and slides away under his angled weight. He rights himself. His hands tug down at his t-shirt. It says 'stud muffin' across the middle. "It's the other way around… I'm worried I'm gonna wake up. I'm worried you're gonna… you're gonna change your mind."

"I'm not here because I changed my mind."

Kai nods, all swift and jerky. "Good."

They both stand where they are for a handful of seconds.

"You look like you're about to run away," Kai says.

Soobin huffs and it's all breathy. "I think I still might."

Kai jerks his head back towards himself, seeming to exude confidence. "Why don't you come over here."

"I can't move," Soobin replies.

"I could come over there."

"Yeah."

Kai comes closer and Soobin thanks God for doors. When he is in Soobin's personal space he just can’t help but wrap a hand along the side of his neck and presses their lips together. Soobin takes a sharp breath and just lets his instinct take over. He wraps his long limbs around Kai’s waist and turns them over so he can pin the latter against the door.

Their first kiss, short and a surprise, had been cut off by someone tromping down the staircase. Soobin had been too caught up in the surrounding circumstances to appreciate all the sensations: what lips feel like (soft and puffy), what tongues feel like (kinda weird actually), and what another person so close to you feels like (like a blanket, a campfire, the pleasant buzz and burn of alcohol on the right side of tipsy). But maybe it’s just Kai that feels that way and no one else.

Fuck it. Fuck Seokjin and his weird questions. Fuck the wolf that attacked them. Fuck Kai's nightmares that only Soobin knows about. Fuck it all.

They – not without tripping – take it to the bed and Soobin pushes him down and gets on top and that's an entire another range of sensations. But he just hovers there, not wanting to overwhelm Kai but Kai is not taking any of it. Soobin's glad Kai knows what he's wants, because Soobin's hands flail to try and find a spot to settle on Kai's body without feeling like he’s about to break him. And it's a bit sloppy, kissing, but maybe that's the mutual inexperience. And you run out of breath. They never show that in the movies, the running out of breath, or maybe he's doing something wrong. But they have to break apart after a while to take in air and it's like they just got done running laps. Kai' face is much too close for Soobin to see it in focus, but he wants to look at him and his pattern of moles.

"How long?" Soobin asks, still trying to fill his lungs properly and steady his heart, as if he ever could.

Kai is smart enough to not need clarification. "I think people are always a little in love with their best friend," Kai says. Soobin hears this as 'from the beginning.' How had Soobin not been wise of this from the beginning?

"And you?" Kai whisper-asks.

"I don't know," Soobin answers. 'It's new' he almost says, but it doesn't feel new. It feels right – like Lego pieces finally aligned correct and snapping together to create something better than the sum of its parts.

If Soobin dares try to string together moments in 20/20 retrospect, the moment under the stairwell had been the bam, the explosion of _wow oh this is it. This is it._ However, the fuse was lit before then, trailing back. When Kai was missing and Soobin still had headspace dominated by the minute changes to Kai's face since the photo in his phone was taken. When they spent prom night not at prom but with each other and it didn't seem so awful, in fact, he wanted more of that if he could have more.

And farther back, yet. Maybe Kai was right, maybe it all began when they slowly merged from friends to _best friends_.

* * *

In retrospect, it's foolish, that Soobin ignores it all. Seokjin's questions and subsequent absence. Whatever darkness was preying on Kai's subconscious. That Soobin is able to feel this darkness, among so many other things, at all. But it's Kai who dominates Soobin's brain and vision. Kai who will smile at Soobin and for Soobin. Kai who will stuff notebook paper notes down the back of Soobin's shirt (which was pretty distracting) during class. Kai who took four fumbling attempts to hold Soobin's hand under the lunch table, both of them going pink and avoiding eye contact, their hands sweaty. It didn't even matter that Yeonjun and Beomgyu were sitting at the other end of the table, whispering furtively together.

Well, except, yeah, Soobin did have to ask about it. He's heard about it for years.

("What about Yeonjun?"

"Liking Yeonjun is like having a celebrity crush. Hee doesn't know I exist, and I only know him as a fan."

"What if that changed?"

"My crush on Yeonjun is like a dog chasing a car. I wouldn't know what to do with it if I caught it."

"… Is that from a movie?"

"It's from _The Dark Knight_ , Soobin! Yeesh.")

* * *

Soobin invites Kai over his house for pizza night. They gorge themselves as Mom makes choice commentary about the bottomless pit that is teenage boys' digestive system. All the while the two of them have been nudging each other's sneakered feet. Is this footsie? Because Kai kicked Soobin in the shin at one point and in retaliation Soobin almost knocked Kai out of his chair.

They move to the couch and play Call of Duty at half-attention as they wait for Soobin's Mom to leave for the graveyard shift.

"No parties. No strippers. Don't burn down the house. If you're hungry later…figure it out yourselves. You're both old enough to know not mess around." She slams the door behind her. Soobin hits a trigger on his controller that pauses the game, pulling the menu on the screen. When Soobin looks, Kai's eyes drop to Soobin's mouth and the controller drops from his fingers seconds later. Wihout warning Soobin fists the front of Kai's shirt and pulls him in, ignoring the high-pitched squeak coming from his mouth. He’s getting better at this, he thinks.

The door flings open and the two of them jerk upright in a tangle.

"Forgot my snack," Mom announces, not even glancing at them as she rushes past to the kitchen. Soobin holds his breathe until she's out of the house again, listening for her car to start and disappear into the distance.

Kai relaxes out of an unnatural 'act natural' pose just as Soobin exhales. They laugh, then, at each other, at themselves, and their nervousness.

"That could have been awkward," Soobin says.

"What would we've said if she caught us?"

"I think it would be self-explanatory." Soobin scratches at the back of his head.

"Is it?" Kai asks.

"Um…"

Kai is nervous. He's so easy to read sometimes, because he's Soobin _best friend._ But it's not usually in the best friend repertoire to almost get caught making out on the couch by a parent.

"Are we together?" Soobin blurts out.

Kai face wrinkles up, and with an exaggerated hand roll he repeats back, "Are we?"

"We're kind of together right now," Soobin says.

"In the semantic sense, yes, yes we are together because we're in the same place." Kai gestures aggressively down at the couch.

"What about the, uh, colloquial sense?"

"That's what I'm –!" Kai starts, the beginning of a rant judging from the rise in his voice. He stops, however, when he focuses in on Soobin smiling, clearly teasing him.

"Jackass," Kai mutters, but doesn't get more in before Soobin's kissing him. This should be awkward. The first time and after and now and forever on. And yet it is so easy for Soobin to lean in to kiss Kai, to interlace his fingers with Kai', to just be with Kai.

"Do you want to go on a date then?" Kai interrupts the kissing to ask.

"A date?"

"Yeah… Like, it's one of the benefits of being _together_. You get make out with someone and also have them buy you shit."

"Oh, so I'm paying?" Soobin asks but can't help but smile.

Kai leans dramatically back along the couch, putting his hands behind his head. "I'm totally a trophy boyfriend."

* * *

"So…" Soobin tugs at the straps of his book bag. " _Thor_ is playing at the theater. We could go."

Kai yawns loudly as he closes his locker. He stares blearily at Soobin. Cute. "What're you talking about?"

"About going to the movies. Together… a date?"

"Oh? Oh."

Soobin notices now the dark circles under Kai' eyes. "You okay?"

"Didn't sleep well last night," Kai says.

"Weird dreams?" Soobin asks, trying to sound offhand but probably sounding eager.

"What's with you and dreams?" Kai says. "This is not the first time you've asked."

As Soobin 'ums' for a plausible answer, Kai adds, "I haven't remembered a dream in months."

"Since the wolf?"

Kai tilts his head as he calculates back. "Yeah. I guess so… What do you think that means?"

Soobin gulps, like something out of a cartoon. It's an opening. But Soobin hasn't felt anything dark from Kai since the night after his disappearance (don't think about it being that you avoid being around him asleep) and, well, everything is so nice now.

"I have no idea."

If Kai then looks at Soobin with some measured suspicion, Soobin distracts him with a proposition, "So, the date?"

"Yeah." Kai squints his eyes shut hard and then opens them like he's trying to clear something from his vision. "Sounds fun."

Soobin shifts closer, and puts a hand on Kai's arm and concentrates. All Soobin's reading from Kai is tiredness and nothing else strongly.

"There's a showing tonight at seven-thirty. I’ll finish work at seven and we good to go? Don’t worry I'll pay for the tickets." The only reason Soobin can get out all these details when he's distracted is that he practiced them.

"Oh, is Dr. Seokjin back then?"

"Yeah, first day back." There was a voicemail on Soobin's phone from the man (a call Soobin missed because he had been _busy_ with Kai) asking him to come back to work.

It turns out to be a fairly hectic shift of work in which Soobin doesn't get a chance to question Seokjin about his disappearance. Dr. Kim had been good at keeping the animals alive. He hadn't, however, been good at (a) paperwork and (b) being tidy. The first of the tasks was tackled by Dr. Seokjin back in his office. The second was handled by Soobin, all the while keeping an ear out for the bell from the front desk. If Soobin had thought he might get some answers from Seokjin today, he was greatly mistaken.

When his shift ends, Soobin doesn't have the drive to try and grill Seokjin for answers, especially because Kai should be waiting for him in theater.

He's not late yet. Soobin checks the time on his phone. Kai still has a few minutes. Soobin waits. Kai doesn't arrive. Soobin texts. No response. He calls Kai's phone.

Kai phone goes to voicemail. Soobin hangs up and dials again. Partway through the third ring the phone is answered.

"Hello," grunts Kai, disoriented as if just awoken.

Soobin blurts: "Kai. Where are you? Are you okay?"

There's a pause, then, "Soobin?" He sounds a little more aware and a little more scared.

Soobin swallows and nods, then realizes he can't be seen nodding.

"Yes. It's me. Soobin."

Kai breathing is heard hard through the speakers on the phone. "I don't know... I don't know," he says.

"Kai, where are you?" Soobin knows he's close to panicking, but Kai is already panicking so Soobin forces himself calm for both of them. It's amazing what you can do for another person.

Kai rambles, not completely coherently or properly into the phone. Soobin hears a few words, like 'house.'

"House? Your house?" Soobin asks and Kai doesn't answer. "Kai!"

This must jerk his attention back. "B-Binnie?"

"Are you at your house?"

"No."

Another conclusion hits Soobin so hard if he had the time he would question why it wasn't his first thought. "Are you – are you at the Kang house?"

There's a pause then, "Y-Yeah… I don't know why I'm here."

Soobin runs his free hand through his hair and tugs it tight. "I think you were sleepwalking again, okay? You're just disoriented. Stay where you are. I'm going to come get you. Okay, Ningning, please, _please_ say okay."

"O-Okay," Kai says, though Soobin's not sure he's comprehending it all. Soobin's playing all the options in his head: bike there, call his mom, call the sheriff, call 911… Kai's voice, just a whisper and very horrified interrupts.

"Oh, god. There's a body here." There's a clatter. Kai had dropped his phone or it was knocked out of his hands. The call cuts off.

Soobin swears. He tries to re-call Kai, but his hands are shaking so bad that he knocks his own phone out of his hands. It lands screen down on the edge of the curb then plops into a puddle on the street.

"Come on!" Soobin screams at everything. His phone is dead when he retrieves it.

Soobin is paralyzed for just a few seconds, then he runs back into the clinic because it’s closer than his house. There's a phone in there.

Seokjin, behind the front desk, starts to say something as Soobin bursts through the front door. Maybe it was "Forgot something?" but it's cut off as Soobin rushes around the desk to the phone attached the wall.

"I gotta call. I gotta call," Soobin says all rushed. He fumbles with the new phone in his hands and stares at the numbered buttons. His mind blanks on Kai's number. Soobin's never had to memorize it. It's saved in his cell phone. His dead cell phone.

Soobin may be on the verge of hyperventilating. Seokjin's hands are on his shoulders, turning him around.

"Soobin," the man says, urgent yet calmer than Soobin could dream of being at the moment. "What's wrong? Tell me what's wrong."

"Kai!"

"What about Kai?" Seokjin asks.

"He's – he's…" Soobin's eyes sting. Forming words is hard when just breathing is hard.

"You need to breathe," Seokjin says. "Listen to me. Inhale and hold your breath. Alright, good. Now exhale." Seokjin coaches him through slowing his breathing. Some order comes back to his brain although his eyes are still stinging.

"Now tell me about Kai."

"He's at the Kang house, you know, the one in the preserve. He sleepwalked there, and I need to get him. But then he said something about – about a body, and then he dropped his phone. And then I dropped my phone… and I need to get to him!"

Without any more question, Seokjin says, sure, "I'll drive… But on the way, you have to tell me everything."

* * *

They're getting there faster than Soobin ever could've gotten by himself, but in the passenger seat of Seokjin's car, every heartbeat feels like a minute and every minute like an hour. And Soobin has no way to make sure Kai is safe in the meantime. As contingent on the ride, Soobin told Seokjin everything. Dr. Seokjin just nodded as he concentrated on the road, going well above the speed limit. Soobin wasn't sure how Seokjin could so accepting of Soobin explaining the absurdity of feeling others' emotions and how he felt the subconscious darkness from Kai, and how that all tied into Kai sleepwalking now. It didn't even make sense to Soobin.

He tenses when they turn on the road that cuts into the preserve, ready to jump out of the car, although they still have yet farther to go.

"He's going to be okay," Seokjin says, maybe the first comforting words of the night.

"Then why are you so worried?" Soobin retorts somewhat harshly. He doesn't need balms; he needs Kai.

"I'm worried about a lot of things," Seokjin replies evenly.

Seokjin turns off the road to a dirt one hidden under the fallen leaves. The ride is bumpier and Soobin twists his hand onto the door handle.

As they pull up to the Kang house, it's dark. Their headlights and moon above are the only illumination. As soon as the vehicle stops, Soobin's grappling with the door to get out. Seokjin grabs Soobin's sleeve. "Wait," he says and Soobin stills though he hates it.

Seokjin leans over Soobin and removes a flashlight from the glove box. He turns off his car completely and when the headlights die Soobin can see light peaking out in ribbons between the slats nailed over a busted out window.

"He's in there," Soobin says, although he doesn't really know this, just that there is light inside the dead house.

Seokjin clicks on his flashlight and it creates an eerie glow before them. "Let me go first," he says to Soobin and Soobin follows this by just managing to stay a half-step behind Seokjin as they enter.

They go in the house and turn to the right, where the room with the light is. Seokjin pushes open the door on creaky hinges. Soobin sees Kai sitting up against a wall, head in his hands, and Soobin forgets any commands as he pushes past his boss to get to his boyfriend.

Kai looks up and lunges at him as Soobin skids to his knees beside him. Soobin tucks his forehead against Kai, overcome with immense relief. "Hey, hey. You're okay… You're okay?"

"I guess you're the friend who said he was coming to get him," says an unfamiliar voice from behind Soobin. It's from a red-haired guy – around their age, short but really muscular, and vaguely familiar like when you see an actor in a small role in a movie and know you've seen them in something else but they hadn't made a big enough of an impression to stick. "Thank god," the guy says. "He's been freaking out."

"Who're you?" Soobin asks, immediately on edge.

It's Kai who answers. "The body. It's wasn't a body. Well, it was. Just not a dead one."

The red-haired guy makes a noise that is clearly exasperated. Soobin's not really worried about him though. It's one of the benefits of being able to _feel_ other people the way he did. This guy is rather disinterested and caught up in his own mix of troubles.

"Who was buried here?" Seokjin asks. He's standing at the edge of a wide hole in the floorboards, one Soobin didn't see until Seokjin shone his flashlight down on it.

The muscle-y guy's surface emotions turned from disinterest-irritation to immediate suspicion, but directed at Dr. Seokjin. "What do you want?" he retorts, kinda growly.

"What's your boss doing here?" Kai whisper-asks Soobin.

"Long story," Soobin says as he stands and pulls Kai to his feet after him. There's a tension building in this room and he wants to be ready to flee.

"I just want to help these boys here." Seokjin's eyes flicker over to Soobin and Kai. "But to do that, I need to know who was buried here, Taehyun."

Taehyun? Oh, the guy's name. But how does Seokjin –?

The red-haired guy – Taehyun – straightens up as if making himself bigger against a predator. What Soobin sees next, he can't be sure, because while he's entranced with this scene playing out before him, he's more entranced with Kai beside him. His eyes keep coming back to Kai's profile, seeing him shaken but unharmed. But what Soobin thinks he sees is this Taehyun-guy's eyes flash red, but it could just be a trick in the weird lighting. The room is only illuminated by Seokjin's flashlight and a camping lantern – the light Soobin had seen from the outside.

"Who are you?" Taehyun demands.

The undercurrent of regret Soobin had felt from Seokjin before comes crashing up. "I was friends with your mother, once."

The mood of the room shifts, from tense to incredibly sad, which makes Soobin gasp with the intensity of it.

"It was Jung," Taehyun says.

Seokjin nods once. "He's not to be trusted."

Taehyun crosses his arms. "I know that. I just have bigger problems right now."

"Not after everything he's done," Seokjin says, again looking back at them.

Kai says, "Wait. Are you looking at me? Why're you looking at me?"

Taehyun rolls his eyes, and it seems so young amongst all this posturing. "You're the one who poisoned me with wolfsbane and brought me here."

"I – I don't remember that," Kai says. "I got in the Jeep to do some errands before –" He looks at Soobin for a long moment. "And then I woke up here."

"It was Jung," Seokjin says.

"Who's Jung?" Soobin almost yells.

"My dead uncle," Taehyun says.

"Your dead uncle?" Kai says.

"Well, he's not dead now," Taehyun replies with a shrug.

"He's not dead now," Kai repeats, eyes bulging wide but somehow calm. He turns to Soobin. "Well, that it's. I've gone insane."

Soobin laughs although nothing is funny. He says to Kai, "I'm right there with you."

* * *

Perhaps Soobin and Kai's almost hysterical breakdown that followed made Dr. Seokjin realize this was a particularly distressing – not to mentioned confusing as fuck – night for the teenagers. He ends his conversation with Taehyun, saying, "You can find me at the clinic if you want to continue this talk, but I think it's time I took these two home."

Soobin and Kai get into the backseat, neither quite willing to be parted from each other. About five minutes into the drive, Kai leans up toward the driver's seat and says, "You not actually taking us home, right? You're going to explain some of this shit to us first."

"… I suppose I should. You two are in it now."

"Okay, okay, that's great," Kai says and while he sounds placated, Soobin can sense the explosion coming. "Can you start with WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"

Seokjin is unfazed.

"Let's get back to the clinic first…"

* * *

"So you're saying," Kai repeats back, sarcastic skepticism turned up to around a seven. Soobin is sure that if Kai hadn't had such a trying day it would be higher. "That this all happened because of werewolves."

Seokjin doesn't flinch. Soobin has known the man for a long while and he has grown exponentially in Soobin's respect. Seokjin had never given the impression of a conspiracy theorist or 'not all there'. If anything, he was overly stoic and centered at almost all times.

"That's a bit of a simplification, but yes."

Kai leans back in his seat and raises an eyebrow. Soobin cuts in front of anything his boyfriend has to say next.

"Why did you disappear?"

"I needed to meet up with an old contact for information," Seokjin says, nodding in affirmation. "I know a lot about this stuff, but I don't know everything, Soobin. Things weren't playing out as I thought… See, when one is bitten –"

"By a werewolf," Kai quips in cynically.

"By an alpha werewolf," Seokjin says to Kai, then to Soobin, "Alphas are the ones with red eyes." Soobin shivers, because that detail is still vivid. Kai snorts and mutters, "Of course."

"One of two things occurs." Seokjin holds up one finger in count. "The person becomes a werewolf." He lifts a second finger. "The person dies."

Kai sits up, all his snarkiness dissipated, and he looks exactly like a moping wet puppy. "Is Soobin dying?"

"No," Seokjin corrects before either of them can work into a proper state of panic.

Kai clutches at his chest and throws his head back. "Oh, oh thank god."

"Now you know how I've felt through all of this," Soobin says with a bitter smile. Kai reaches over and puts his hand onto of Soobin's and he immediately laces their fingers together.

"There is a third option," Seokjin goes on. "A rare occurrence in which a werewolf bite can _awaken_ something latent in a person. For you, Soobin, it sparked your empathic abilities."

Soobin takes a hiss of a breath. He knows what that means from comic books. To have a word for his experiences… it's a relief in a way. It's a validation.

Kai runs his free hand gently over his neck. Watching Kai's agitated energy reassures Soobin. If he's moving, jerking, and talking, Soobin can know that, in some measure, Kai is okay.

"So to recap… The Kangs are werewolves. The Chois, which includes our classmate and our principal, are werewolf hunters. Soobin's an empath. I was a horcrux-like pawn in Jung's scheme to rise from the dead? Damn. I'd play this RPG, but I'm not sure about living it."

"You believe?" Soobin asks. Soobin did. But Kai had shown nothing but sardonic disbelief this whole conversation.

"Kim Soobin, my giant bunny, the love of my life, if you say this empathy thing has been happening to you, I believe you. And I can't deny what I've experienced. The wolf attack. The _sleepwalking._ " He adds air quotes around 'sleepwalking.' "If this also involves werewolves." He laughs, a little hysterical. "Who am I to judge?"

Soobin flips his hand around under Kai's and squeezes his fingers.

"I have one more question," Kai says to Seokjin. "Can I get my hands on your sources?"

* * *

Kai comes to work with Soobin now. As Soobin goes around doing his chores, Kai reads all the tomes of information Seokjin has (which he keeps, unassuming, in the unlocked bottom drawer of a file cabinet.) Kai finds Soobin around the Animal Clinic – sitting near where Soobin is working if he can – to fill him in on interesting tidbits like: "I knew mistletoe was poisonous to humans, but apparently it's poisonous to _everythin_ g." and "Silver actually can't kill werewolves."

"But mistletoe can?" Soobin retorts, eyebrows raised.

Kai hefts up the big tome he's carrying. "In the right quantities, maybe," he says then eyes instantly narrow. "Don't be a smartass, Binnie. I'm a big enough smartass for the both of us."

At some point later, Kai puts down the book and rubs at his eyes. He then peers up at Soobin, who's been shuffling around in the area around Kai (his shift's been over for a half hour but he didn't want to interrupt Kai when he was concentrating so hard).

"What's it like?" Kai says, "The whole… empathy thing."

Soobin takes the stool next to Kai and tries to piece together the right answer. No one has asked this yet.

"Unsettling," Soobin says, pushing one shoulder up. "I mean… I always understood other people's emotions, but like in the normal way. Someone's angry, someone's sad, someone's happy. You understand and it can be infectious or it can be scary or awkward. It's just like that but turned up to max volume."

"Huh," Kai says as he soaks it in.

Soobin wrinkles up his nose and adds, "Mostly people are horny. Especially at school. Like 90% of the time."

"And here I thought you were being profound."

"You're horny right now," Soobin counters.

"That's not fair!" Kai whines, aggressively waving a finger as if this makes his point but it only makes him look adorable. "I'm _always_ horny. And I'm not exactly discreet about it."

Soobin opens his mouth to say something like "I can fix that" but Soobin doesn't get to say it, because the bell on the front door chimes as it's opened and they both look up.

Kang Taehyun has come to animal clinic. It's been about a week since they met him, and that night, and Kai has been bouncing back fairly well. Soobin, too, if he takes an honest look at himself.

"Is Seokjin here?" Taehyun asks with no preamble, kind of glaring at them.

"Yeah, he's –" Soobin points over his shoulder towards the back.

"Get him," Taehyun states. Soobin slides off his stool behind the counter while Kai says to Taehyun, "Has anyone told you you're incredibly charming?" while very obviously and incredibly not charmed. Taehyun glares at his remark, though Soobin could see a hint of amusement there. He doesn’t know if he should be relieved or not to know that no one can actually deny his boyfriend’s cuteness.

Seokjin comes out before Soobin can get more than two steps away from the front desk. "Ah. I was wondering if you would show up," he says. He goes to the gate in the desk and opens it like a courtesy for Taehyun to pass. The two go back to his office.

Soobin and Kai share a single significant glance, then they both scramble to go listen at the cracks around the closed office door. They hear a jumble of things that don't make sense, something about a kanima amongst other things.

"This would be so much easier if we had werewolf hearing," Kai whispers.

"What?" Soobin says.

"Werewolves have really good hearing," Kai explains, just as the door is yanked open and the two tumble inward onto the floor.

"Yeah, we do," Taehyun says, glaring down at them. Seokjin, however, looks amused, then thoughtful.

"Maybe they can help us."

Taehyun's head whips back to Seokjin as Soobin and Kai pick themselves up. "What?"

"Yeah, what?" Kai reiterates, harsh on the 't'.

Seokjin looks between the three of them, settling lastly on Taehyun. "Have you ever heard of the concept of an emissary?"

* * *

Soobin leans across the aisle and slips a folded note onto the corner of Beomgyu's desk. He plucks it up with fast fingertips and turns to peer at him, eyebrows slanted inward and downward in a silent question.

"Read it," Soobin mouths to him.

He unfolds it as Coach Jeon comes in to start class. His shock is like a bowstring pulled suddenly taut. Hee sits stiff-shouldered for the rest of the class period.

Between chemistry and lunch, Beomgyu finds him in a quickly emptying hall. He grabs the front of his t-shirt and leverages his surprise to bang him back into the lockers.

"Holy crap!" Soobin declares, for he hadn't envisioned this reaction.

Beomgyu holds up his note with his free hand. "What do you know about all of this?"

Soobin blinks a few times before he finds his words. "Honestly… I'm new to all this. But I want to help."

"Help?" His voice is a practiced intimidating, but Soobin detects the vulnerable hiccups of his silent consciousness underneath.

"I'm not a werewolf," he states plainly. "I'm not a hunter either. But I know that there is a lot of bad blood between the pack and the hunters in this town. I have a vested interested in resolving that without unnecessary bloodshed. There's already been too many casualties."

"I still don't understand how you're helping." Beomgyu still has him pressed up against the lockers.

Enter Kai hallway left, unplanned yet perfect. "Peace talks," he says. "Sharing of information. Having a town with both werewolves and werewolf hunters… gets kind of awkward. Then there's this…. creature called kanima. And that's kind of the big problem."

Kai says this all like he's a well of wisdom and not like he learned what a kanima was yesterday and the rest of it in the last week.

Beomgyu lets go of Soobin finally and steps back. Soobin slides into his hand a business car for Seokjin’s clinic. He stares at it and then at the two of them oddly, but Soobin is fairly sure he gets the message.

"I'll call to make an appointment," he says, somewhat haughtily, before marching off.

Soobin massages his shoulder. Kai steps in close. "So?" he asks.

"He doesn't trust us," Soobin says. "But He's hopeful."

* * *

Soobin later finds out that Beomgyu called the clinic two hours after he passed he the business card. The arrangement is to meet tomorrow, a Saturday. Soobin and Kai show up in tandem, even beating Dr. Seokjin there, their anxiety is so drumming.

Taehyun arrives next, and lurks around – silent and scowl-y.

Nearer the appointed time does Beomgyu appear. Waiting in the front, Soobin sees him through the glass door, striding across the street and not alone.

"Is that Yeonjun with him?" Kai asks from behind Soobin.

"Will you be able to control yourself?" Soobin asks playfully, though he admits he’s a bit jealous.

Kai hooks his chin over Soobin's shoulder. "I'll manage," he says, and then right before the door is opened, adds, "But can I say, a threesome. Think about it."

"Oh my god."

The mood shifts as they enter. It's very real now, when all the pieces are at play.

Beomgyu walks straight up to the counter with Yeonjun just half a step behind.

"Kang Taehyun's here?" he asks.

"Yes," Kai babbles. "You know Taehyun? Do you know Jung? Because he _sucks_."

"Jung killed my aunt," Beomgyu says, grim-eyed. Soobin grimaces. Not a good place to start.

"He possessed me in order to bring himself back from the dead," Kai says with a nod, "And he turned Soobin here into an empath."

"Fascinating," Yeonjun comments as he eyes them and how close they're standing. "Let's get this started. I have practice scheduled at noon."

Soobin flips the sign on the front door to 'Closed' and then leads the two ladies into the back.

"Well, I'm here," Beomgyu says as he settles into a wide-footed stance.

"You didn't come alone." Taehyun inclines his head toward Yeonjun who just smirks in response. Taehyun's not pleased but he hasn't exactly been pleased since he arrived. Soobin can feel him second-guessing this, even though the plan has yet to be given a proper shot.

"The message said not to tell my family, not to come alone," Beomgyu counters. He's showing more bravery than he feels – Soobin can tell this – but maybe that's what bravery is: _doing anyway_ in the face of fear.

"Beomgyu would tell me anything that would happen here anyway," Yeonjun says, looking unimpressed with Taehyun and all these proceedings together.

"Making hunters out of your classmates?" Taehyun says.

"Is that better or worse than making werewolves out of them?" Beomgyu says swiftly back.

"Okay guys, we didn't come here to fight," Kai says with a whine.

"I came here for information on the kanima, but I don't really need to waste my time with this…" Beomgyu says.

"This was my idea," Seokjin announces from where he had been standing – unobtrusive – back from the confrontation.

"And what exactly does a veterinarian have to do with…" Yeonjun looks around the ensemble critically, " _This_?"

"I have more experience with werewolves and hunters than anyone in this room," Seokjin replies, silencing all of their objections, not just vocally, but internally as well. "While being in neither category… I've witnessed a lot. Blood feuds, betrayal, death… People who pursue power rather than peace. Some things years ago…" Seokjin looks at Taehyun who looks down at his folder arms. Then Seokjin looks to Beomgyu and Yeonjun, "And some recent…”

"What I've learned most is that too often do we pass down our mistakes and burdens onto our children. You're all already shouldering this weight." He finally looks to Soobin (Soobin reaches out to find Kai' hand on instinct, to remind himself he's there). "I gathered you all here because I hoped... I hoped you, the next generation, the future of this battle, could rise above revenge, above prejudices, above… above what my generation was able to do."

The room is quiet as what Seokjin spoke absorbs within them. He spoke in generalities, but the hit certain people, their allusions to truths of their lives, very hard. And the room doesn't seem so silent as they all stew.

"So," Beomgyu speaks up this time again, voice softer and less aggressive. "Let's talk about the kanima."

* * *

It doesn't exactly go easily from then on, but Beomgyu and Taehyun start talking rather than glaring and sniping. There's contention about how to handle the kanima. Taehyun, at first, says he wants to kill it. This results in a visceral reaction from both Beomgyu and Yeonjun. ("If I wanted to kill him I would have stayed and planned with my dad!"). It is revealed that the girls know the identity of the kanima. It's Doyoon. _Choi_ Doyoon. This perturbs Taehyun for Doyoon, apparently, had been his first suspect but had been ruled out. This reveals that the cause of Doyoon's kanima-ness was a werewolf bite gone wrong. The why of it going wrong was yet to be determined.

"Wait," Soobin interrupts. He had been quiet through most of it, not an expert in the least on the topic of conversation. "I was bitten by a werewolf and didn't turn into one. I became an empath instead. Dr. Seokjin said…" He glances around and Seokjin isn't in the room. "Well, he said sometimes the bite will awaken something latent inside you."

"Anything in your Latin about that?" Kai asks Yeonjun.

He smoothes out the printed page. "I'll double check." Kai heaves some of Seokjin's resources onto the table and the group starts a study session, pretty much.

Soobin slips out a little later and finds Seokjin in the kennel but he can hear Kai asking; “Hey, I read that the Chois used to be a pack of werewolfs just like the Kangs, how come you’re hunters now?”

"The animals still need care even if we are _closed_ ," Seokjin says when Soobin enters the room.

"They're working together in there," Soobin says, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"I meant what I said," Seokjin says. "It wasn't just some mind game. I just keep seeing disaster and death, and someone needs to change it."

"I'm just not sure what my part in it is…" Soobin wraps his arms across his stomach.

Seokjin lowers the clipboard he had been using to take notes on his patients. "You heard me talk about emissaries."

Soobin nods once. "So, for Kai and me… you think we'd be good at that?"

"Kai sure has the brains for it," Seokjin says. "And you have the heart."

Soobin ducks his head. "But we're just a bunch of teenagers. And Taehyun."

Seokjin smiles. "Maybe that's what will make you successful. You won't be burdened with the cynicism of age."

They both hear raised voices from the next room.

"Better get back in there," Seokjin says. "Sounds like they need you,"

* * *

Kai is counting off supernatural factoids on his fingers. His mouth is going a mile a minute right next to Soobin's ear because they're crammed on Kai's bed together. They could be sprawled out, but they've chosen otherwise.

When all five of Kai's fingers are spread, Soobin reaches his hand up and aligns it, palm-against-palm, to his boyfriend's. Kai sentence ends hanging and half-finished. He shifts his hand a little, his delicate fingers pressing into the spaces between Soobin's huge ones and curling down.

"The world just got a whole lot bigger," Soobin says as he twists his head on the pillow and appreciates the contrast of his palm intertangled with Kai's smaller one.

"I think that was inevitable," Kai says, "But yeah… this all has been unexpected."

Soobin snorts at the immense understatement.

"But we'll get through it," Kai says, a statement of fact. "And the rest. Together. Right?" He looks at Soobin from the corner of his eyes. He's so close it's hard for Soobin to focus on Kai's delicate features, but also so close that his lashes seem so long as he blinks. The way he smiles widely until his eyes disappears makes him appear even prettier and innocent than Soobin has ever witnessed him before.

They lay, fingers intertwined, Soobin's leg kicked over one of Kai's own, torsos pressed together, not quite distinguishable as two separate beings. Soobin's empathy might have given him a hard kick into realization, but Soobin is unequivocally sure that he never needed it – the empathy— to know that Kai is the one person with whom he's going to make it through. Thick and thin. Growing up and werewolves.

“Right.”

Soobin closes his eyes and feels Kai's presence just through the moment of his steady breathes. Then he hears the bed creak slightly and feels gentle strokes of fingertips on his cheek and down to his lips as a warm body settles itself above himself. Kai presses a light peck where his fingers leave before giving him a deep kiss. It's a pretty intense kiss for the night, considering Soobin’s already dealing with the urge to not just slam Kai’s body against the bed and have his way with him. Kai presses to him regardless, obviously feeling it but not commenting or reacting. He drinks him in. After a few kisses later, Kai pulls off his lips to snuggle into Soobin’s side.

“Hey, Binnie, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?” Soobin murmurs, slowly opening his eyes to look at his boyfriend. “What is it?”

“I almost forgot to ask. Your dad, if I wasn’t mistaken, isn’t he a Cho—”

When their eyes meet, Kai suddenly stops. Soobin glances confusedly at Kai, now sitting up on his bed, looking pale like he’s just seen a ghost. He presses a hand to his mouth. Soobin can just see the fear and confusion behind his eyes.

“Kai?” Soobin gets up and puts his hand on Kai’s trembling arms. He looks conflicted, emotions battling it out on his delicate features. “Ningning, what’s wrong?”

Kai regains his composure a lot faster than Soobin predicted. He grabs Soobin’s face between his palm and stares deep into his eyes. That strange feeling from weeks ago starts kicking in again and Soobin is suddenly hit with the sudden dread crawling up his back.

“Don’t freak out okay? But your eyes… they are red.”


End file.
